After I migrated the website to an updated platform and enabled SSL, I thought I should check for dead links. Well, I found and corrected a bunch…I have a bunch more to finish. In this process, I found many of my dead links were for sites that had either gone dark (meaning I couldn’t find anything about them), moved (and left some sort of redirect), or just updated their site. In some cases, I don’t really care; however, in others, I wish I had the stats or main idea the article was making. So, here’s my question for my readers that blog:
How do you think I should deal with content from other sites? How do you handle it on your blog?
Also, when the sites went dark, I was removing the links from the text and adding a note at the end including the link (just not hyperlinked). What do you think about that idea?
What a way to spend Christmas evening…at the a&e (that’s what they call the emergency room in England). Why am I here?
Well Cyndi wanted a food processor. I got her one. Themetal blade was in this plastic case tthing. What a stupid idea I said. Well, as was washing it I sliced my finger… quite nicely. So Cyndi said I should come.
So…here I sit on Christmas eve waiting to be seen.
[Update 2012-12-25 21:53:37] It took about an hour to get seen. And what did they do? Put some tape on it and give me a sling. A sling! I wanted to ask how I was supposed to drive home. On one hand, in the states, I would have wanted more for my $100 ER fee. My first reaction is to say I’m glad I didn’t pay. Then, I remembered the OUTRAGEOUS amount of income taxes I paid here to provide this “free” healthcare. I want more for my thousands! Oh, I also added the picture. Click it if you want to see it in more detail.
Here in England, it seems to be the tradition for churches to have a Christmas Day service. Several families at church have started getting together for Christmas Dinner. Well, Cyndi and I said we would deep fry a turkey if there was intrest. Well, even though Lydia is sick, Isaac and I went because we had to cook the turkey. Well, it was a hit. Everyone liked it. Isaac and I had an ok time because Cyndi and Lydia weren’t there.
I’ve got the website, I think, all converted to force SSL every place. I’ve also redirected a TON of URLs via .htaccess files to secure equivalents. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve done:
Maxsons.org -> https://www.maxsons.org files.maxsons.org -> https://www.maxsons.org/files media.maxsons.org -> https://www.maxsons.org/files/media update flickr pictures to use https in both the href and img src tags
The flickr stuff was fairly easy. I just had to run a couple of SQL queries to do a find and replace on a few fields in a few tables. By the way, if you care, the find and replace syntax for MySQL is:
update [table_name] set [field_name] = replace([field_name],'[string_to_find]’,'[string_to_replace]’);
In general, the check I use in the .htaccess file looks like:
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=permanent]
In reality, it isn’t that easy. From how I’ve seen it work, if you have one .htaccess file in a directory, that overrides something higher up. That means I’ve had to put a .htaccess file in each of the directories for the domains above and test several cases of with www and https, without www and https, with www and no https, etc… for each case. I think I finally have it worked out. Worst case, the [L] directive doesn’t seem to be working. What does L do in a .htaccess file? Well, I think it is supposed to tell Apache to stop processing redirects. Mine keeps going.
Oh, and while the URL gets rewritten, it doesn’t reassign variables in the .htaccess file. That means you have to order things right so stuff works out. Here’s an example:
When you get to line 4 (RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !host1) to do a generic check of is https turned on or off, you have to also check to make sure you aren’t coming from a different host (files vs media vs www). If you don’t, you’ll end up and rewrite using the generic %{HTTP_HOST} with a wrong host and get certificate errors.
Oh, one other thing I did, after I had all the redirection already done, was to insert the following line into my .htaccess files:
Header set Strict-Transport-Security max-age:31337
If you are wanting to do something similar, that looks like the better way to do it. From what I’ve read (at eff and wikipedia) that header, by itself, would force a browser that understood it to make a https connection. If it couldn’t, the page wouldn’t load. But, if the browser didn’t understand it, the page would load via http. So, if you are starting out from scratch and didn’t already have 30 lines of .htaccess written, try that. If it works, you are done…if not, then you can delve into .htaccess and mod_rewrite.
Now, why did I do this? Over the weekend, I did some reading regarding rights and the government. I found out that the 4th Amendment–protection against unreasonable search–doesn’t apply if you’ve shared the information with a third party. This means the government can get a list of the phone numbers you have dialed from the phone company with just a court order…they don’t have to get a warrant. Now, enabling https on my website doesn’t help there; however, it does allow me to use a feature of my new hosting plan (a dedicated ssl certificate) to make the logins for the website safe so prying eyes at Starbucks can’t see my username and password. Or, better yet, someone can’t sniff my login credentials when I get set up to blog from my mobile phone (or upload pictures). A bonus is that no one can read the other stuff as it goes over the wire…that means a “bad guy” government couldn’t sniff packets and find out what I’ve written. Now, they could go to the website and look…but what if I make some things public and other things not…then you have to have the ID and password to login to see what’s up.
Oh, by the way, the 4th Amendment stuff I mentioned above means I may look to stop using disquis for comments and go back to native comments. But, on the other hand, comments are already shared with a 3rd party so is there a reasonable expectation of privacy there? Probably not….
Since I’ve migrated the blog, you may notice some articles change order and menu items not work. I’m working on updating these things. If you can’t find what you are looking for, use the Search function (at the top right of the page or here).
[Update 2012-12-27 08:04:20] All the problems should be fixed; however, I’ve decided to use this page for a generic “I’ve made changes” page. There were some things I couldn’t redirect. For example, some code from way way way back in the day when I used phpNuke. I’ve sent those things here…You’ll have to search if you came from a link like that. Leave me a comment, if you would like, and I can work on fixing specific one off things…
Last night Lydia nor Isaac slept well. This morning, they were really cranky. They slept all afternoon. We went to the Carol Service at church this evening when we got sent home because Lydia was a bit warm. Well, Cyndi and I didn’t think she was, but we came home anyway. Well, after eating a bit for dinner, Lydia promptly got sick on the living room floor.
[Update 2012-12-24 09:44:45] While I was messing around with the site, Lydia read the title of this post. Her reply: “I’m not sick.”
Cyndi and I are looking for some ideas on how to get Isaac to sleep longer (or at least stay in his room after he wakes up). He’s soon to be 3 so he can’t tell time or anything like that. Lydia does a good job.
The approach of everyone else that includes some form of limiting guns, magazines, or something else
The non Gun Control approach begins with the position that people have an inalienable right to defend themselves. To do that, they have to have access to weapons. The solution therefore CANNOT include some form of limiting that right.
The second approach is favored by just about everyone here in the UK, most–if not all–the press in the US, Pres. Obama, and Sen. Feinstein. It does NOT start with the position that people have a right to defend themselves therefore it doesn’t matter if limits are placed on it. Banning weapons is an “easy” place to start. It may also include thoughts that guns are “bad” or “evil”.
Do you see the difference? The starting point makes all the difference. Just like the “right to free speech” in the 1st Amendment, the 2nd Amendment simply recognizes a right that people have. It doesn’t grant it. The people in the first group want to solve the problem while not infringing on people’s rights (and remember, they have those rights simply because they are people…not because the government says so). The second group sees the document as “granting” the rights. If something (or someone) has granted a right then the right can be restricted.
I currently live in England. England where you can’t own more than a .22 and you have to get permits out the wazoo to do that. I don’t really care what people here think we should do. I don’t care what the French think we should do, or the Germans, or the Chinese, or the Russians, or anyone else. Can their media report on the problem? Sure. Why not? But–wow–their bias shows through in the reporting.
Next, how do you think total gun bans happen. It starts off with “reasonable” limits placed on things. Then, in 10 or 20 years, more limits seem “reasonable” so they are put in place. That is exactly how the UK ended up so its Olympic Pistol team can’t even practice here. Heck, they had to pass a special law so the Olympic pistol events could be held here.
And finally, why does everyone think that criminals will respect the law? The kid at Sandy Hook didn’t (it is already against the law to 1)murder and 2) have a gun on school grounds). Criminals, by their very nature, break laws. That is why they are criminals. Could we make the society safe if 100% of the guns would go away? Not really because then the criminals would use knives or baseball bats. Are we going to outlaw them as well? Where does it end?
Oh, just in case you needed help, I’m in the first group. We MUST find a solution that does not infringe on people’s rights. There have been enough of that already (The Patriot Act limiting free speech is a good example). Just because someone has done it in the past doesn’t make it the right action. And frankly, the US Federal Government has way way way overstepped its bounds.
[Update 2012-12-26 09:41:42] I updated some links that changed when I moved the website.
As you can tell, I’ve made some changes to the website. More will come over the Christmas break.
Here’s my current TODO List:
https enable the thing — Done as of 21 Dec. You can use https://www.maxsons.org to view the site now. However, until I update all our flickr image links to use https you may get warnings about insecure content.
get comments back — done. But comments don’t work if you use https. This is a problem with disquis.
Update flickr images to use https — Done 22 Dec
disquis via https — done
Force https through redirect — Done. Only the https version of the site will work now.
Verify rss feed — Done as of 21 Dec. RSS should still work
update the look/feel a bit
[Update 21 Dec 2012 08:48] Crossed off completed items
[Uodate 21 Dec 2012 08:54] Added image. From studioamanga via flickr
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed to purchase the extended battery for this guy. And, even with that, I only was able to get 2…maybe 3…days out of this thing.
Complaining because I only got 3 days out of the battery. Â I’d love to do that today. Â Now, I can’t even go one day without plugging my phone in. Â Wow!
